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Avondale Leda Cheviot circa 1987. Has been stored under cover all winter but pulled out of barn last week. A piece of wood was hanging down underneath the van. it appears to be a piece of 1.5 x1" hardwood batten approximately 2 ft long. It was located just in front of the wheel arch directly underneath the edge of the van where the side of the van meets the floor. It seems  to be a batten to seal the wooden floor underneath right around the edge of the van. There is no visible damp problem with the underfloor of the van, nor inside the van but the batten was well rotten. I felt right around the van directly at the bottom edge where the sides meet the floor and there was no problem anywhere else

I was not able to get under the van to have a proper look without lying in a great puddle at the side of a busy road but i will do so this weekend.

Can anyone tell me in advance what i might find and what the purpose of this batten should be and how should i replace it. I have a nagging thought that it is not a batten, but part of the actual hardwood floor underneath. Again if i find it is, then what should i do

Any advice greatfully recieved

The floor is unlikely to be hardwood as most caravans have a sandwich construction floor of 2 plywood layers with polystyrene etc as an insulating sandwich

Any framing is within the sandwich

It may have been part of the skirt inside the aluminium external trim but its difficult to say

you are right John. Of course the floor is ply, but the piece of wood that fell off was not.

Thanks for the reply.

Just in case anyone might be interested i did get underneath the van this morning. I was right it, it was a rotten batten that seals the main van floor at the very outside edge. The caravan side panel overlaps at the bottom edge of the van and is screwed in to the batten underneath the van. Thankfully the main van floor is not in any way rotten or damaged. Even a mug like me should be able to do the repair- fingers crossed!